If you like Isabel Bloom's whimsical cast-concrete figurines and want to learn a bit more about the artist, you'll enjoy this exhibit at the Davenport Museum of Art, which collects 25 of the sculptor's early works, including a few unfinished ones showing the armature supporting the concrete overlay.
The most striking thing about Emily Lambertsen's paintings is her compositions. She works from photographs, but her compositions create images that transcend the original photo. Color is used sparingly but dramatically to enhance the effect.
JinMan Jo's one-man show at Quad City Arts gallery in downtown Rock Island is very ambitious in its size and medium, with expressive rustic sculptures that evoke an emotional response from the viewer. I think they are better suited to being shown outside, and this is also the artist's preferred venue.
The current show at the Art at the Airport Gallery in the Quad City International Airport is a classic counterpoint between masculine and feminine. For every vulva image created by Rowen Schussheim-Anderson's furry fabric surrounding a center of contrasting color, there stands an erect wooden vase turned in Steve Sinner's wood shop.
The Midwest Writing Center was once an idea and an organization without a place. It's definitely a place now, but one with a door that might or might not be open if you stop by. The facility, which held several programs over the summer, will make its presence official this weekend with a grand-opening celebration on Sunday, September 29, from 2 to 4 p.
wetware /wet'wâr'/ n. [perhaps from the novels of Rudy Rucker or Stanislav Lem] 1. The human nervous system, as opposed to computer hardware or software. 2. Human beings (programmers, operators, administrators) attached to a computer system, as opposed to the system's hardware or software.
"If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." This quotation from 1882 by designer and reformer William Morris sums up the underlying philosophy that a master of the Japanese style of pottery imbued his students with in the 1960s and 1970s.
More than 100 artists' works in ceramics, fibers, glass, metals, wood, and mixed media explore the boundaries between art and craft in a massive exhibit at the Davenport Museum of Art. Defining Craft 1: Collecting for the New Millennium is on display through November 3 and has such luminaries in the art world as Gehry, Chihuly, Lichtenstein, Castle Sherman, and Paley.
The Quad Cities' professional ballet company was recently awarded a pair of grants to present programs "exploring the humanistic foundations of dance." Ballet Quad Cities announced that it received an $8,000 grant from Humanities Iowa and $10,000 from the Illinois Humanities Council.
Continuing its tradition of geurilla-style exhibits in non-traditional spaces, the Kanga Arts Cooperative hosted an opening evening of mixed- media art and sounds at the offices and retail location of Gemvision in downtown Davenport last Saturday.

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